Case filling machine



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AM W Y B QR m-wnw pa SM musk 2.8% '3 Patented June 16, 1959 CASE FILLINGMACHINE (larl L. Day and Wilmer D. Regnier, Baltimore, Md., assignors toCrown Cork & Seal Company, Inc., Baltimore, Md.,' a corporation of NewYork Application November 16, 1953, Serial No. 392,131 51 Claims. (Cl.53-61) The present invention relates to case filling machines and, moreparticularly, to machines for placing containers such as bottles incases or cartons.

The machine disclosed herein is of the type disclosed in the applicationof Allan C. Davis, Serial No. 192,210, filed October 26, 1950 for CaseFilling Machine, now Patent No. 2,701,085, issued February 1, 1955.

The embodiment of the invention hereinafter disclosed is described inconnection with the positioning of bottles in open-topped cases orcartons. However, it will be understood from the following objects anddescription that the invention is applicable to the handling ofcontainers or articles other than bottles, and to the placing ofarticles in packages other than open-topped cases orcartons.

An object of the invention is to provide arrangements to enable aplurality of rows of articles to be simultaneously delivered to a casefilling machine or the like.

Another object of the invention is the provision of means to form aplurality of rows of articles from a smaller number of rows.

A further object of the invention is the provision of conveyor structuresuitable for moving one or more rows of articles to a case fillingmachine or other machine adapted to handle articles.

Still another object of the invention is the provision of a mechanismoperable to move a group of articles from one supporting area to anothersupporting area and which will enable the articles to be spaced apartduring such movement.

A further object of the invention is the provision of means to carryarticles downwardly to a case, with means of optimum simplicity tocontrol the dropping of the articles from the carrier during downwardmovement.

Another object of the invention is the provision of means to clamp andcenter a case and which is of optimum efliciency and simplicity.

Still another object of the invention is the provision of an articleholder for use in lowering articles to a case, and which article holderis of simple construction and readily can be assembled and repaired.

Still another object of the invention is the provision of controls for acase filling machine which will be certain in action and of such designthat the cycle of operation of the machine will be automaticallycontrolled.

Other objects and advantages of the invention willbe apparent from thefollowing specification and accompanying drawings.

Referring to the drawings:

Figure l is a plan view of the case filling machine, the front of themachine being at the left;

Figures 2 and 3 are plan views of successive portions of the bottleinfeed conveyor structure. If the upper edge of the sheet bearingFigures 2 and 3 is placed against the lower edge of the sheet bearingFigure 1, and with the arrows 2 of the thus opposed edges of the sheetsin registry, the manner of delivering bottles from the Figure 2 conveyorportion to the conveyor portion of Figure 1 will be apparent. Bottlesinitially delivered to the conveyor structure of Figure 3 continuemovement upon the conveyor structure of Figure 2 and then move to theconveyor structure of Figure 1;

Figure 4 is a front elevation of the machine with the bottle carrier inelevated position, the view looking toward Figure 1 from the left;

Figure 5 is a view similar to Figure 4 but with the bottle carrier inlowered position; Figure 6 shows the machine in side elevation, the viewshowing the bottle conveyor in vertical section on the line 6-6 ofFigure 2. It will be noted that Figure 6 is taken looking toward Figure1 from the bottom edge of that figure and also looks toward Figure 4from the right;

Figure 7 is a left hand elevation of the machine, the view lookingtoward Figure 1 from the top edge of that view and looking toward Figure4 from the left;

Figure 8 is a plan view showing the two container supporting areas ofthe machine and with the bottle pushing mechanism partially advancedfrom the position thereof illustrated in Figure 1;

Figure 9 shows the bottle pushing mechanism on a larger scale thanFigure 8, the view being in plan with the top cover plate removed, andshowing the parts in the position they occupy when the pushing strokehas started;

Figure 10 is a plan view of the machine with the bottle pushingmechanism at the extreme end of its pushing stroke;

Figure 11 is a view similar to Figure 9 but with the bottle detectorplungers in normal or non-pushing position;

Figure 12 views Figure 11 from the bottom edge of the latter figure andthe portions shown in section generally are taken on the line 12-12 ofFigure 11;

Figure 13 is a fragmentary detail of a portion of the Figure 11structure, the view looking toward Figure 11 from the direction of thearrow 13;

Figure 14 .is a horizontal sectional view on the line 14-14 of Figure 5;

Figure 15 is a vertical sectional view on the line 15-15 of Figure 1,with portions broken away. The view includes a solid line showing of thebottle carrier in its normal or raised position and a dotted lineshowing of the carrier in lowered position;

Figure 16 is a vertical sectional view of the upper portion of themachine on the line 16-16 of Figure 10, the view showing the bottlecarrier in vertical section on the line 16A-16A of Figure 17;

Figure 17 is a vertical section of the upper portion of the machine, theview being on the line 17-17 of Figure 16;

Figure 18 is a vertical sectional view in the same plane as Figure 17,the view showing the lower portion of the machine with the bottlecarrier in lowered position;

Figure 19 shows the case conveyor and case centering means in plan, theview being taken on the line 19-19 of Figure 4;

Figure 20 is a fragmentary detail of the case clamping and centeringmechanism, the view showing that mecha- 3 in detail, the view beingtaken on the line 26-26 of Figure 1;

Figure 27 is a plan view of the bottle infeed mechanism of Figure 26with the top wall removed;

Figure 28 is a fragmentary view of the case clamping and centeringmechanism, the view looking toward the Figure 19 structure from thedirection of the arrow 28 in Figure 19, and

Figures 29 and 30, when positioned with the top edge of Figure 28adjacent the lower edge of Figure 27, diagrammatically show the machineand its control devices.

The operation and construction of the apparatus generally may bedescribed as follows:

Referring to Figure 3, each of the conveyors 50 and 52 moves bottles Bto be cased toward the machine in a single row from one of two fillingmachines or other sources of containers to be cased. T he bottles movingon the conveyors 50 and 52 will be formed into a double row as they areguided on to a third conveyor 56 by the converging portion 55 of theguide rails 54 of Figure 3 so that, as shown in Figure 3, the containersof the two rows on conveyer 56 may be abreast, the guide rails 54 alongconveyor 56 being spaced apart a distance slightly greater than thediameter of two containers. It will be understood that if a singlefilling machine or other source has a sufficiently high output ofbottles, such output can be placed directly upon the conveyor 56 by asingle-line conveyor.

Referring to Figure 2, the lines of containers moving on the conveyor 56will be delivered to a fixed distributor plate 58 and pointed divider 60which will form the containers into two double rows as subseqentlydescribed, so that four rows of containers will move from distributorplate 58 on the wide conveyor 62, two rows on each side of the divider60. Divider 60 has a fiat spring plate or deflector 61 extending in a Vfrom each diverging surface thereof, the plates 61 tending to deflectbottles slightly away from the central dividing wall which continuesbeyond divider 60. The containers of each double row again may beabreast because the space between each side of divider 69 and theopposite guide rail 54 is wide enough to permit two bottles to moveabreast. A second distributor plate 64 near the outfeed end of divider60 will assist in dividing each of these two double rows of containersinto two single rows which thereafter continue movement on conveyor 62between vertically arranged guide plates 66 which, as shown in the lowerright hand portion of Figure I, extend to the gate mechanism 68. Asshown in Figure 1, conveyor 62 extends almost across the top of themachine table 70, the upper run of conveyor 62 being flush with theupper surface 72 of the table. As appears from Figure 6, conveyor 62actually consists of two conveyors moving side by side in synchronism.

As is hereinafter explained, the gates 73 of the gate mechanism 68,shown in more detail in Figures 26 and 27, normally will be open topermit conveyor 62 to move containers through the gate mechanism in fourrows and between guide bars 74. As shown in Figure 1, in the embodimentof the machine disclosed herein, each of the four rows formed betweenthe bars 74 will contain six bottles, with the leading bottle of eachrow adapted to contact with one of four trip plungers 76 forming part ofthe pusher mechanism 80. Each plunger 76 preferably is under such springtension that it will not be actuated by pressure of less than twelvebottles thereon, through this pressure may be increased or re duced asdesired and depending upon the rate of supply of bottles as well as therate of supply of cases in which to position the bottles.

As best indicated in Figure 8, the pusher mechanism 80 includes a boxlike casing 82 reciprocable upon two fixed and horizontal slide rods 84.The guide bars 74 extend from the inner wall 85 of casing 82 to a pointadjacent the gate mechanism 68. When the casing 82 of pusher mechanism80 is in the bottle receiving position shown in Figure 1, the bars 74will be in alignment with corresponding vertical plates 66 of the infeedgate mechanism. It will be noted from Figure 1 that each trip plunger 76is midway between two adjacent bars 74.

When the pressure of the four rows of bottles moves all of the plungers76 from the solid line position of Figure 11 to the position indicatedin Figure 11 by the dotted line 76a, mechanism hereinafter described indetail will first cause the gates 73 of gate mechanism 68 to swing froma position in alignment with the guides 66 and bars 74 to the positionindicated in Figure 27 to thereby segregate the four rows of six bottlesbetween the bars 74 from the other bottles on conveyor 62, as well ashold back the latter bottles. Then pusher mechanism will move to theleft as viewed in Figure 1, that is, toward the front of the machine, tomove the bottles from the bottle supporting area provided by conveyor 62to the bottle supporting area provided by a. horizontally movable grid90. As shown in Figure 15, grid has the upper surface of its bottlesupporting bars 92 flush with the table surface 72. During the firstportion of this movement of the pusher mechanism 80, the plungers '76will be further retracted by means hereinafter described to the positionindicated in Figure 8 at 76b so that the outer ends of the plungers willbe flush with the face 94 of the pusher mechanism casing wall 85.

This further reaction of the plungers 76 will enable bottles to movelengthwise of each row and the bars 74 when the bottles come intoengagement with guide bars fixed to table 70 and which extend across andabove grid 90 parallel to the bottle supporting bars 92 of the grid. Inmore detail, it will be apparent from Figure 8 (which shows the plungers76 fully retracted) that as the bottles are moved to the left in thatfigure to be positioned on grid 90, the six bottles in each of the fourrows will be forced apart lengthwise of the rows by the stationary guidebars 100. The retraction of the plungers 76 permits the bottles torearrange themselves to meet this condition. The guide bars 100 havetheir inlet ends arranged along a shallow V, with the end 100a of thecenter bar 100 extending closest to the approaching bottles. As shown inFigure 16, the fixed guide bars 100 are arranged in upper and lowersets, the upper set engaging the top portions of the bottles and thelower set engaging the base portions of the bottles.

Figure 10 shows the pusher 80 at the limit of its forward or bottlepushing stroke. It will be observed from this view that the surface 94of the pusher mechanism casing 82 cooperates with the nearest bar 100 toguide the adjacent line of bottles.

In accordance with the practice described in said Davis application, thegrid 90 shown in Figure 16 now will be moved to the left as viewed inthat figure so that the bottle supporting bars 92 of the grid will bebrought into vertical alignment with the lower set of fixed guide bars100. Hence, the bottles will drop through grid 90 and into the holders102 of the basket of carrier which, at this moment, will be in uppermostposition. By suitable circuit arrangements hereinafter described, aftercarrier 110 has moved down far enough that the bottles will be clear ofthe pusher bars 74, the pusher mechanism 80 will return to the right inFigure 1 to bottle receiving position above conveyor 62. During suchreturn movement, the plungers 76 will be restored to their outermostposition and when pusher mechanism 80 reaches its normal position shownin Figure l, the gate mechanism 68 will reopen to permit conveyor 62 toagain fill the bottle supporting area defined by the arms 74 of pushermechanism 80.

Referring to Figure 17, at the time that the bottles drop into theholders 102 of the basket 110, the rotat-

